


Rising Challenge

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: We Are Defiance [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, GFY, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 18:36:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13300821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: A black swan still rises above the daughters of Duke Kryze, and a different figure marks their connection with the adopted son of the Mand’alor. A silent promise of danger to those who would tear them down.





	Rising Challenge

Satine is not expecting to find her sister waiting at her apartments on Coruscant when she comes back from the Senate building and the frustrating job of trying to be an aide to a politician who finds her very existance distasteful to acknowledge. She hasn't seen Bo-Katan since their parents had sent her away to Coruscant, barely even heard from her sister in the six years since the younger Kryze had rejected family and clan in favor of the Mand'alor and his warrior's path.

"You're not supposed to be here." Satine ushers Bo-Katan into the tiny space that is all she is granted - and that begrudgingly - by the Senator for Mandalore. "Father will do worse than disown you if he knows."

Bo-Katan is silent, her face hidden by the helmet she's wearing, though the owl that Satine still sees, through all the years and changes between them, flares its wings in agitation. Afraid, perhaps, of exactly that happening. That they might be separated more permanently because they dare defy the hopes of their parents that being kept apart will lessen their bond to each other in favor of others.

Only when the door shuts behind Satine does Bo-Katan lift the blue-and-silver helmet, setting it aside, letting Satine see how gray her sister's skin is, the hollowness of her eyes. "Sande Kryze can't do anything to me anymore, vod'ika." She draws in a breath that catches at the end, not quite a sob. "He's dead, Satine. Death Watch murdered him."

Satine stares at Bo-Katan, peripherally aware of the key she'd been holding onto hitting the floor with a dull thud. "What?"

Bo-Katan steps close enough for the black swan that Satine has missed to mantle its wings above their heads, reaching out to grip Satine's hands in her own, the soft leather of the underside of her gauntlets warm. Rubbing her thumbs across the backs of Satine's hands in a comforting gesture. "Tor Vizla sent an assassin to murder Sande when he refused to chose sides in his rebellion against the Mand'alor. He didn't even have the courage to face him directly."

"Father wouldn't have fought him even if he had come to Kalevala to challenge him." Satine grips her sister's hands as tightly as she can, shaking her head. "Why? We would never have joined the Mand'alor, either."

"I did." Bo-Katan doesn't try to pull away, tightening her fingers around Satine's. "Dafrin has already spoken of doing the same, when he is of age. And no one knows your loyalties in this war."

"My loyalty is and has always been to our father." Satine draws a shuddering breath, tears stinging her eyes and blurring her vision. "To Clan Kryze."

"You cannot be loyal to both." Bo-Katan's words are quiet, but no less harsh for that, and Satine yanks away, staring at her sister through her tears.

"I'm not you to reject my name and family, Bo-Katan!"

"I never rejected my name!" Bo-Katan lifts her chin, color rising in her cheeks. "Nor my family. Only Sande Kryze and his cruelty."

Satine dashes away the tears from her eyes, and gestures angrily at the armor Bo-Katan wears. "You wear armor, and in colors of another clan. How dare you tell me you have not rejected us wearing that!"

"I wear the colors of the Mand'alor while his son wears mine!" Bo-Katan glares back, her hands clenching into fists. "The wolf of his soul painted on Kryze purple and white."

It feels like a blow to her chest, and Satine is silent for a long moment, staring at Bo-Katan. "We were to be defenders of the faithful." Her voice sounds thin and hoarse. "Together. Voices a thunderclap of victory."

"I never forgot that." Bo-Katan holds out her hand, the midnight blue of her soul shifting in sparks around her, agitated and indistinct. Too close to be solidly her own, too far for the swan to swallow it whole. "Please, Satine. Don't leave me, not now."

"You already left." Satine wraps her arms around herself, watching Bo-Katan's extended hand. She wants to reach out to take it, desperately, but she can't. Not with the sharp ache still settling behind her breastbone. "You left, and now our father is dead, and for what? All he wanted was to find peace, to give Clan Kryze peace."

"The price for his peace was one I couldn't pay, not alone, not without you." Bo-Katan's hand doesn't waver, and Satine can feel her sister's gaze fixed on her face. "You never saw the misery among those who did not fit Sande's vision of what his New Mandalorians should be."

How could she have seen, when she was sent off before she was even twelve, and had never seen Kalevala outside their home? How did Bo-Katan see, when she should never have had any more chance than Satine?

Drawing a sharp breath, Satine closes her eyes, desperately wishing that she could unhear what had been said. That she could unhear the echoes of messages that she'd only ever gotten parts of - so much of it cut out, and she'd never asked by who or why. Had focused on learning what she had been sent to learn, so she could become the ruler she'd been told she would be since she'd been old enough to understand what was spoken to her.

"I never left you, Satine."

Letting out a shuddering breath, Satine opens her eyes again, ignoring Bo-Katan's hand to wrap her arms around her sister in a hug. Holding on while she sees their swan settle around them out of the corner of her eye. It hadn't vanished, no matter what had changed. Truth that she could not - would not - shut out, no matter how much she hurts, no matter how hard it is.

* * *

Jango waits as the ship lands, one hand on his blaster as he waits. Bo-Katan had been close-lipped about why she had left so abruptly after Sande Kryze's death, and he has an uneasy feeling making his insides churn. Wondering what she had been looking for, and what she had found.

The first figure down the ramp isn't Bo-Katan, though her features are similar enough that Jango can place her as Satine Kryze, Bo-Katan's sister and the oldest of the siblings. A cream-colored creature dances around her, something that looks harmless and insignificant save in that he can see it at all.

Satine studies him for a long moment before a small smile curls her lips without touching her eyes. Looking over her shoulder, the smile becomes more genuine, warming her expression as she waits for Bo-Katan to come down the ramp to join her.

Jango wants to stare as the sparks flare and shift with the proximity of the sisters. He's never heard of siblings that are that close, save as small children, and to see it now makes the uneasy feeling intensify. The more at the great swan that rises above them, wings spread and hissing defiance and challenge as they join hands, watching him with near identical expressions.

"Welcome to Mandalore, Duchess Kryze." Jango's glad his voice doesn't crack any longer, though there's a strain to it on Satine's clan-name that makes him want to wince.

"Thank you." Satine nods her head regally, staying still for a moment.

Bo-Katan pulls her into motion, approaching Jango with measured steps and eyes fixed above his head. Until they're close enough he could reach out to touch them, and the familiar faded sparks of his own soul flare and vanish, changing around them as it prowls around the three. Long extinct, but still the greatest symbol of the Mando'ade, and Jango wonders that it appears now, for them.

"A snarl of challenge, a dare to any who would stand against us."

Satine's voice is quiet, ragged-edged steel, and her expression is mixed sorrow and determination when Jango meets her gaze. She holds out the hand not holding Bo-Katan's, waiting patiently for him to take it. Silent promise of what's already been spoken thrumming between them.

Let Vizla throw himself against the Mand'alor, and find the jaws of death waiting for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr 2 August 2016.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Rising Challenge](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17068370) by [Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri), [reena_jenkins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reena_jenkins/pseuds/reena_jenkins)




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